Variety Film Review: ‘E-Team’
Another scene of startling immediacy — and risk to the filmmakers — reveals how the pair managed to sneak into Syria, with Anderson’s camera trailing Neistat and Solvang as they travel by car through Turkey in the dead of night, then cross the border on foot over barbed wire and begin to run. “We’re in Syria!” Ole announces in an early example of the E-Team’s disarming sense of humor. “We’re safe!”
IDA DOCUMENTARY MAGAZINE – ‘CONTINUING TO SHOOT AFTER THE SHOOTING STARTS: DANGEROUS DOC-MAKING’
“There’s something about putting that camera up,” Anderson says. She won the jury prize for excellence in cinematography at Sundance 2014 for her work on E-Team – “All of a sudden you’re using your technical brain,” Anderson explains. “You’re able to push back against the fear because you’re there to a do a job—a good job, but most importantly you are aware that the risk is only worth it if you are able to bring back the story.”
EYE FOR FILM REVIEW: ‘FIRST TO FALL’
The atmosphere generated is surreal, a point underlined by shots of a hospital where all the women and children want to be photographed holding a semi-automatic. Elsewhere, there is poignancy, both in the changes that their experiences force on Hamid and Tarek and in other subtler scenes, such as a child moving in and out of a crowd of praying men. It’s a nod towards an uncertain future and a disillusionment Hamid will go on to spell out.
Télérama – The Magazine (France): ‘First to fall’ wins two jury awards
Special mention Jury Award and the Youth Jury Award winner. This punchy documentary on the war in Libya could also have been the perfect pick for Grand Prix. – From the first five minutes, the directors make this documentary a real cinematic film with characters for whom we connnect too, but which does not prevent them from raising a lot of questions on the role taken by social networks in time of war.
INDIEWIRE – ‘E-TEAM’ FILMMAKERS FOLLOW FOUR HUMAN RIGHTS WATCHERS INTO DANGER
Katie Chevigny (E-Team Director): Our producer Marilyn was tasked with finding somebody to go to Syria – she called DP after DP after DP, and pretty much all of them said, “I have to check with my wife or my girlfriend,” and they all came back with “she said no.” Finally, Marilyn called Rachel, this 24-year-old woman who didn’t have a wife or girlfriend to say no. She had a mom, who Marilyn would call every day to tell her she was safe. Marilyn had a lot of gray hairs over that one, but she did an amazing job.
OPEN DEMOCRACY REVIEW ‘FIRST TO FALL’
Perhaps the most shocking element of ‘First to Fall’ is that it was singlehandedly shot by Anderson, who navigated the male-only battlefields and braved unimaginable risks as an unarmed cameraman caught in open fire. Her relationship with the main characters and the trust she gained are clear in the insider access her camera gains to their private moments. This is most definitely a valiant and commendable debut film by a journalist who made the film after meeting Hamid and Tarek while on assignment in Benghazi in 2011.